Czech Hockey Legend to be Honored with new… Opera!

In Boulder they burn couches in the streets when the home team wins. In Prague they draw on their classical European heritage and burst into song. And their national hockey team's surprising gold-medal win in the Nagano Olympics is still considered such an epic win that only epic song can do it justice.

The Czech National Theater has revealed that it is working on the opera, "Nagano," for an April 2004 opening in the Estates Theater. So next year, walls that reverberated to the 1787 premier of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" will hear the names of hockey stars Jagr and Hasek.

Jiri Nekvasil, artistic director for operatic productions, reminds us that operas are often based on legends, and that to Czechs who love hockey - which is apparently most of them - this feat required legendary defeats of hockey giants Canada and Russia.

No word yet on whether the performers will appear on skates or wear giant foam hands.

The story was widely reported, from hometown Radio Praha (Prague), to the worldwide Associated Press, and even distant Kazakhstan.